KKC Partners File Amicus Curiae Brief in Defense of Whistleblowers at Supreme Court

Washington, D.C. October 22, 2014. Yesterday, partners of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP filed an amicus curiae brief in Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Carter before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the National Whistleblower Center. The extensive brief delivers a full rebuttal of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) and Kellogg Brown & Root’s (KBR) attack on the integrity of whistleblowers.

The Chamber and its corporate allies (in this case KBR) are attempting convince the Supreme Court to narrow the scope of whistleblowers eligible to file cases under the False Claims Act. Their position would block whistleblowers with key original information on government fraud from filing their cases by a hyper technical technicality.

The brief vigorously opposes the position of the Chamber/KBR and fully explained to the Court how the FCA is the most important tool for uncovering fraud. As explained in the brief, currently 80% of the FCA fraud cases filed by the government were triggered by whistleblower disclosures. By cutting off those disclosures the Chamber and its allies will radically undermine the ability of the government to police fraudulent contractors. The cost to the taxpayers will be in the billions of dollars.

“Over the last 30 years, the FCA has been the most successful law protecting whistleblowers,” stated Stephen M. Kohn, a partner of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto and co-author of the amicus curiae brief. “Billions of dollars have been recovered and more whistleblowers have been vindicated under the FCA than any other federal law. By destroying the FCA the Chamber and its corporate allies want to destroy the most important tool in the federal government’s arsenal for fight fraud,” said Kohn.